


Interview with a Kryptonian

by Niconsernetta



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Cultural Differences, Alien Culture, Alien Gender/Sexuality, Alien Technology, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-06
Updated: 2019-06-06
Packaged: 2020-04-11 23:01:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19119466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Niconsernetta/pseuds/Niconsernetta
Summary: Cat Grant gets an interview with a Kryptonian





	Interview with a Kryptonian

**Grant:** So, you’re the mysterious stranger the world’s been talking about? What is it that they’ve been calling you –Truth? I’m curious about some things. Do you mind if I ask you some questions?

 **Truth:** If I minded questions, Ms. Grant I would not have agreed to this interview.

 **Grant:** Excellent. So first, what is your name?

 **Truth:** I am Kor-Am of the Artisan's Guild of Kandor.

 **Grant:** Kandor? Are you not Kryptonian?

 **Truth:** I am Kryptonian, Ms. Grant. Kandor was the capital city of Krypton, much as the District of Columbia is the capital of your The United States of America.

 **Grant:** And you belonged to the Artisan's Guild? Tell me about that.

 **Truth:** On Krypton professions were divided into five guilds: the Warrior Guild, the Science Guild, the Laborer Guild, the Artisan Guild and the Mediator Guild. Each served a purpose in society, professionals given their place and a clearly understood path of advancement as well a structured way of interacting with the other guilds.

 **Grant:** So what was your profession?

 **Truth:** I was a painter for years before I earned an apprenticeship with a… I believe that you would call them blacksmiths? Those who work with metal at a forge.

 **Grant:** Yes. We would call them blacksmiths. What about your companion, the other Kryptonian that people have reported seeing with you?

 **Truth:** My companion is Loth-Tor of the Mediator's Guild of Kandor.

 **Grant:** And what is it that Loth-Tor did for the Mediator's Guild? Was he a counselor?

 **Truth:** Loth-Tor was similar to what you would call a priest. A holy man. In service to our pantheon. He was unable to make this interview, he is in Oklahoma aiding Habitat for Humanity today.

 **Grant:** What is your relationship to the Family of Steel? To Superman and Supergirl.

 **Truth:** I do not have a relationship with the one you call Superman and I am uncertain as to how to define the relationship I have with Supergirl. Human family structures only vaguely resemble Kryptonian family structures, there is not a familial relationship that you would understand that is sympathetic to the nature of the relationship I have with Supergirl.

 **Grant:** Could you try to define your relationship with Supergirl?

 **Truth:** The great houses of Krypton do not work like families on Earth do though you do have historical incidents of a similar system though the legitimacy of an heir does not work in the same manner as your feudalism. Kryptonians believe in absolute primogeniture, the oldest child is the legitimate heir regardless of sex but it is more complex than that. Zor-El was the youngest child of Seyg-El but Zor-El’s child is the oldest of this new generation making Supergirl the legitimate heir to the House of El. Should she form a household that household would take precedence over all other households of the House of El and would pull far more influence on Daxam or Lasus, and once Krypton, in matters of politics.

I was born to the House of Am but to a far lesser household than either Superman or Supergirl. My sire is the youngest of the generation before mine and I am among the youngest of my generation. As a child earning my mastery, similar to your primary schooling, I caught the attention of In-Ze, sole legitimate heir to the House of Ze. I was taken to be a companion to one of his children and thus the House of Ze fostered me though I was not raised as a sibling. The closest to human social structure has, is a close friend of the family who is treated like family though this is not correct.

 **Grant:** Now you said that you were taken to be a companion to the House of Ze, what does that mean in this context and what does it have to do with Supergirl?

 **Truth:** In-Ze is Supergirl’s maternal grandsire.

 **Grant:** And you have remained loyal to the House of Ze? Even though you’re current leader is a woman and not a man?

 **Truth:** I am not human Ms. Grant. Humans chose arbitrary differences real and imagined between the sexes, the one which carries the offspring and the one that does not, and have used oppressive smear campaigns and internalized widespread sexism to maintain the status quo: being that the sex that does not carry offspring is superior because it does not whelp.

 **Grant:** Whelp?

 **Truth:** Yes, whelp.

 **Grant:** I will endeavor not to take that out of context.

 **Truth:** That is the best attitude with which to have when dealing with aliens. Despite the phenotypical similarities between us we are decidedly not the same species and our reproductive systems reflect this most prominently. Terrestrial life favors binary reproduction; you are among the few on the many worlds that I have visited with only two biological sexes. One is most common though our quintinary reproduction is not exactly uncommon.

 **Grant:** Quintinary, as in seven individual biological sexes.

 **Truth:** Yes.

 **Grant:** Fascinating.

 **Truth:** The subject of biology is always fascinating if you have an open mind, especially when you look at the biology of another sentient species and take into account how it has affected their development and growth socially. Kryptonians have a rigid socio-sexual hierarchy that has remained largely unchanged since the evolution of what is considered the proto-modern Kryptonian. Until the changed brought about by Kandorian Law from the genetic anomalies brought about by extensive genetic engineering and their preference for removing the sexual aspect of reproduction carried out by the Codex, immediate family groups became large, sprawling things very quickly.

In the days of barbaric warrior tribes both the House of El and the House of Ze were powerful clans that many clamored to be a part of creating the companion system of foster children. As life, in most of its forms on other worlds, has discovered there is safety and protection in numbers. Most of the sentient aliens in existence are, by their very nature, group orientated though few have evolved the same evolutionary psychology as Kryptonians. We do not do well by ourselves. We form deep pair bonds with others, each with varying degrees of intimacy, so much so it is considered to height of cruelty to imprison a Kryptonian and not imprison the pair bonded members of their household as well.

As a child I was taken to the House of In-Ze to potentially form a pair bond with one of his offspring as they approached the age of sexual maturity though it was clear I would not be considered a mating partner. Adjudicator In-Ze was a proponent of Kandorian Law though he could see the severely detrimental effect of putting each of the new laws into effect immediately. He believed that we needed to be weaned slowly off of the old ways out of the very real fear that we would destroy ourselves as more and more of our population fell prey to the severe consequences of changing our behavior to no longer reflect our nature. In my case I was fortunate; one of In-Ze’s offspring took a liking to me.

 **Grant:** So you are like an pseudo-father?

 **Truth:** A pseudo-uncle, my bond mate is Supergirl’s maternal aunt. It would be closest to say that I am a favorite uncle.

 **Grant:** But you are not male in the way that a human man is male.

 **Truth:** I am not capable of bearing offspring, yes.

 **Grant:** So Superman and Supergirl are –what?

 **Truth:** I do not understand the question.

 **Grant:** Where do Superman and Supergirl fall in your seven biological sexes?

 **Truth:** I cannot speak on the subject of Superman, I do not know him nor did I know him as a whelp, but he is not capable of bearing offspring and he is not as I am. Supergirl, however, is not an incorrect nomenclature.

 **Grant:** What do you mean by that?

 **Truth:** One day Supergirl will be capable of bearing offspring, she is the closest that Kryptonians come to being female as you would understand female, biologically speaking.

 **Grant:** Are you saying that Supergirl hasn’t reached maturity by Kryptonian standards?

 **Truth:** Neither sexually nor socially would she be considered an adult on Krypton.

 **Grant:** She appears to be fully mature.

 **Truth:** She is not. Judging purely by readily available statistics humans only live for around 80 years using Earth as the standard by which years were calculated. Naturally there are outliers, those who die by disease or accident young and those who live far longer lives. But rarely does a human live a lifespan of one hundred years.

 **Grant:** That is correct.

 **Truth:** Kryptonians live longer. How long we will live on Earth remains to be seen but the aging process has been severely arrested among those of us who have reached sexual maturity but on Krypton we aged at a rate which is rather easily calculated but I will attempt to keep this simple. You might want to write this down. Are you ready?

 **Grant:** Yes.

 **Truth:** Time is relative and not standardized across the galaxy. Even on the shipping lanes there is a universal standard that has been agreed upon just as what you call ‘The Western World’ has agreed that the current year is 2018 based upon the date of death and rebirth of a man you know as Jesus of Nazarith. Despite the fact that there is no consensus that this man even existed. On Krypton, and on most worlds, a zehtiahr, a day, is measured by the time it takes for the planet to make a single revolution on its axis and a ahmzet, a year, is measured by how long it takes a planet to make a complete revolution around the local star. A day on Krypton is roughly 27.78 hours as you measure time.

There are six zehtiahro in a fanf, a week, on Krypton. So there are six days in a Kryptonian week and seventy-three fanf in an ahmzet, seventy-three weeks in a year. I impress the Kandorian words on you to reinforce that the measurements are similar in nature but the measure of time that passes is different. A year on Krypton is roughly 12,167.64 hours. An ahmzet is around 504.94 days. So a Kryptonian year is 1.3879 Earth years.

Unaltered our lifespan averages to 200 ahmzet with exceptions for longer lives and early death due to accident and disease. By that logic a Kyrptonian will live, on average, 278 years. Female humans reach sexual maturity on average at the age of 14 terrestrial years, our equivalent would reach sexual maturity around 20 ahmzet or 28 years on Earth.

 **Grant:** Really, Supergirl would be considered Superwoman on Krypton at the age of 28?

 **Truth:** No, Ms. Grant we would continue to call her by her proper name and any close enough to use affectionate diminutives would change the suffix slightly to reflect that she is sexually mature.

 **Grant:** And when would she be considered an adult? Legally.

 **Truth:** 20 ahmzet but only after she formally joined a Guild.

 **Grant:** We are almost out of time. I have one last question for you and a request. What are you trying to do here, Truth? We don’t see you or Loth-Tor swooping in to stop bank robberies or fighting supervillains in the street. What are you angling for showing up at environmental disasters?

 **Truth:**  We are not members of the Warrior’s Guild, a police officer or a soldier, it is not my place to intervene in such matters. However, my people harnessed the core of our world as an energy source, we took too much energy believing it to be a naturally sustainable resource despite all evidence to the contrary. I see your world and I see the damage that you have done to it. I see that this damage could be reversed and with a few gifts we could turn the tide so to speak, to reverse the damage and relieve humanity of its dependence on fossil fuels.

 **Grant:** Gifts? Do you intend to provide advanced technology?

 **Truth:** I have provided schematics to companies who regularly burn fossil fuels, air filtration systems which prevent toxins entering the atmosphere by either converting them into a useful industrial byproduct or storing them to be either used again or disposed of properly. All of it based on Kryptonian technology adapted for use by humans. I have given lectures to those who would learn or just those who are willing to listen to what I have to say. I removed a island of garbage from your oceans.

 **Grant:** What did you do with it? The island of garbage I mean.

 **Truth:** What else, I sorted what could be recycled into the appropriate bins in recycling facilities and threw the rest into the sun.

 **Grant:** You threw garbage into the sun?

 **Truth:** Yes. I threw garbage into the sun. You do realize that a star is a naturally occurring nuclear fusion core and that the garbage burned to ashes before it came close?

 **Grant:** So you just flew into space? Hauling a several metric tons of garbage and threw it into the sun?

 **Truth:**  Loth-Tor assisted me but yes.

 **Grant:** How strong are you?

 **Truth:** Once, a man I saved on an oil rig asked me how many press-ups I could do.

 **Grant:** And what did you tell him?

 **Truth:** All of them. Your request Ms. Grant, what is it?

 **Grant:** Of course. Would you mind approximating the spelling of the Kandorian words you used using the Latin alphabet?

 **Truth:** I would not mind in the slightest.


End file.
